Blown away by: Shusaku Endo's Silence. A friend recommended it to me when I mentioned I really like Graham Greene's The Power and the Gloryand it did not disappoint.

Loving: linen everything.

Using: this ceramic travel mug — I often have half a cup of coffee left when it's time to rush out the door. This mug makes it easy to jet out the door without having to sacrifice the cozy warm-mug feel that thermoses just don't have.

Borrowing: my brother's Instax printer — I picked up at my brother's request when I was in the US and I now want one of my own!

Eating: Vietnamese pancakes. My friend puts in an order with a Vietnamese friend every couple of weeks. So, so good.

Eating: crushed tortilla chips topped with melted Muenster cheese, salsa, and sometimes sour cream. I mix it all together and eat it with a spoon. I lived off this in college. Super healthy. ;-)

Wearing: Birkenstocks! I wore Birks in the 90s and early 00s and was amused when they became trendy again sometime last year (or was it two years ago?). But then I succumbed again because 1) Taiwan weather is almost always sandal weather and 2) I stand for the majority of the day and I need teacher shoes. My colleague swears by them.

Laughing: out loud while reading this breakdown of "The Presidents of the United States When They Were Young and Hunky." I'd seen this posted a few times but didn't click (because, I mean, just read the title). But it is funnier than you'd think — and more about the captions than the "hunky" faces. On Woodrow Wilson: "Believe it or not, Woodrow Wilson didn’t learn to read until the age of 10. So if someone tells you that you’ll never be president because you didn’t learn to read until you were 10, they’re probably right, because it’s very unlikely that would happen twice."

Using: the North Face Base Camp Duffel. Paul and I have had an eye on these duffels for years (since we lived in Tanzania), and I stumbled upon them for 30% off during a recent trip to the Philippines. I used some birthday money to pick a small duffel up for myself and a medium one for Paul. I got to test mine out immediately, as it served as my luggage on my return trip home. It lives up to the hype — super durable, really nice to carry.

Drinking: too much delicious coffeeHow terrible is it that I go whole days at school without drinking water? (Really terrible.) The (dubiously) good news: I'm drinking really good coffee these days. I alternate between a ceramic dripper from Muji and our trusty Aeropress. Always smooth. Never bitter.

Pondering: this essay about mega-corporations and the ramifications of their powerIt's long, but you should read it. It's thought-provoking and chilling and dude, we need to stop using nonstick cookware. And we need to start asking more questions.

More and more I think our call to faithfulness as Christians isn’t to attain some sort of moral high ground. It is to forge a more direct path from how we believe we should live to actually living it. 